Category Archives: Health Care

Roanoke Memorial Hospital: $300 million expansion thanks to Medicaid

by James A. Bacon

A year after Virginia enacted Medicaid expansion, it’s still too early to tell what impact the initiative will have on public health, medical economists tell Virginia Business magazine. But one thing seems clear enough. The program is injecting enough money into the healthcare sector that major health systems say they have the confidence to embark upon major expansion projects.

Roanoke-based Carilion Clinic is moving ahead with a $300 million expansion to Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Fairfax-based Inova Health System is spending a similar amount, $300 million, to upgrade its Loudoun County hospital. Bon Secours Virginia Health System has announced plans for $119 million in improvements to its Chesterfield County medical center. And community health centers are either opening or expanding in Southern and Southwest Virginia.

One big question I had about Medicaid expansion is the impact it would have on hospital profitability — and what the hospitals would do with the money. The Virginia Business article provides some clues. Continue reading →

Source: America’s Health Rankings

by James A. Bacon

Virginia has improved from 20th place last year to 15th place this year among the 50 states in America’s Health Rankings compiled by the United Health Foundation. The report cited the Commonwealth as one of three states that “made the largest improvements in the rankings since 2018.” (See the Virginia health profile here.)

Virginia strengths: a low crime rate, a low percentage of children in poverty, and high immunization coverage among children. Since 2012, smoking has decreased from 20.9% of adults to 14.9%. Air pollution has decreased, and so has infant mortality.

Virginia challenges: a low rate of mental health providers, low per capita public health funding, low meningococcal immunization among adolescents. Drug deaths are up, frequent mental distress has increased, and so has the rate of chlamydia.

Overall, the story is a positive one. To what does the Commonwealth owe this improvement? Continue reading →

Source: The Commonwealth Fund

by James A. Bacon

Mirroring national trends, Virginia healthcare markets are severely out of whack. The main difference is that here in the Old Dominion, they’re even more out of whack than they are for the country as a whole. In 2018, total out-of-pocket medical insurance costs for Virginia employees (employee contribution to premiums + deductible) amounted to $8,143 — 10.2% more than the national average.

That’s on top of what employers pay. According to the latest data compiled by the Commonwealth Fund, employers on average contribute $6,635 for single coverage and $19, 512 for family coverage. Add up the employer and employee share, and the cost of family coverage is equivalent to about $13.30 per hour in earnings for a full-time employee.

These costs have rapidly outpaced the general cost of living. As a percentage of median income, out-of-pocket costs have increased from 6.9% of median income to 10.7%.

Out-of-control medical insurance costs constitute a crisis for Virginia’s middle class. While the public policy debate in Richmond has focused almost exclusively on how to extend insurance coverage to the poor and working poor in the form of Medicaid expansion and Obamacare, nothing more than lip service has been given to the crisis for people who pay their own way. Continue reading →